The leaked messages reveal nasty insults directed at Lionel Messi.Image: AP / Francois Mori
Football International
The mood between football star Lionel Messi and his ex-club FC Barcelona is clouded – not to say completely devastated. After details of the Argentine’s mega contract with the Catalans became public in January 2021, Messi reacted furiously.
Someone had told the club-affiliated Catalan newspaper “Mundo Deportivo” about the mega sum that the striker received at Barça – unbelievable 555 million euros in four years. Messi drew consequences: After 21 years at Barça, he left the Catalans for Paris Saint-Germain.
Now comes the next hammer that should further widen the rift between the club and Messi: Apparently, those responsible for Barça pulled the worst way about the footballer.
Messi joined Paris Saint-Germain after 21 years.Image: jose breton / imago images
Barça’s leadership badmouths Messi: ‘sewer rat’
Specifically, it is about a report by the Spanish newspaper “El Periodico“. She published an article on Thursday that hit like a bomb. Accordingly, the editors have received messages from a Whatsapp group in which there was heavy blasphemy during Messi’s departure from Barcelona in 2021.
The alleged statements of Roman Gomez Ponti, the ex-head of Barça’s legal department, weigh particularly heavily. He insulted Messi, among other things, as a “sewer rat” and “hormonal dwarf”. Specifically, he wrote about the superstar: “Barto (Ex-President Bartomeu, editor’s note)really, you can’t be nice to that sewer rat.”
Apparently he was upset with Messi’s behavior, as the next part of the chat shows:
“The club gave him everything and he committed himself to organizing a dictatorship of signings, transfers, contract extensions and sponsorship deals just for him.”
Roman Gomez Ponti on Lionel Messi
Ponti alludes to Messi’s youth hormone treatment and insults him
After that, Ponti continued to insult the footballer – among other things, with an allusion to his hormone treatment in his youth. The Argentine had undergone hormone therapy for a growth disorder. The treatment was then at the expense of FC Barcelona. Ponti railed:
“Especially the accumulation of blackmail and rudeness that the club and we who work at the club have had to endure from this hormonal midget who owes Barça his life… ah!”
Barça’s former general manager admits his own mistakes: “Harms image”
However, Ponti was not alone in the chat about Messi. The group included other ex-board members and ex-president Josep Maria Bartomeu. The ex-director Oscar Grau agreed with Ponti, did not leave a good hair on the superstar.
He joined in the insults, albeit in a more moderate tone. The ex-CEO wrote in response to Ponti’s tirade: “Yes. I agree on many things but Barça comes first and this type of article (meaning the leak from 2021, editor’s note) harms the club’s image.”
It is still unclear who was responsible for the revelations of Messi’s Giga contract at Barça. However, there are rumors that Barca’s current president Joan Laporta could be behind it. It is said that he wanted to oust Bartomeu as boss of the Catalans.
Ponti also insulted other players violently: “whore”
Ponti isn’t exactly known for his reticence. Messi isn’t the only one to be discredited by the ex-executive. The two Barça legends Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets also had to take insults from Ponti via Whatsapp.
Several (ex)Barça players were caught in the crossfire by Ponti.Image: Getty Images Europe / Soccrates Images
He called Piqué a “whore” after the 8-2 debacle against Bayern in the Champions League in 2020. He described Sergio Busquets as “non-transferrable”.
Bastian Schweinsteiger has appeared regularly as an expert on ARD since the end of his football career in 2019. Even during the World Cup, Schweini was the expert par excellence for the broadcaster. Together with Esther Sedlaczek he accompanied the controversial World Cup in Qatar before and after the games. Especially during the last game, the 38-year-old caused a stir with a joke about his co-moderator when he offered her to go on vacation together. She was then visibly perplexed.
